Chapter 694 0689 [The New Prime Minister Has No Prestige]
Zhai Ruwen had just taken over as prime minister when he encountered the military organization plan submitted by the Ministry of War.
He was so confused!
Zhai Ruwen found the military expenditure files of the former Song Dynasty, buried himself in the pile of papers and read them for two days, and then called a meeting of cabinet members: "Have you all read the notes from the Ministry of War?"
Li Bangyan covered his mouth and yawned, looking like he was overworked last night and couldn't wait to catch up on his sleep.
Whoever wants to take care of things related to the army can take care of it, anyway, Li Bangyan will not interfere.
At the founding of the country, Li Bangyan ranked third in the cabinet.
Zhang Gen and Gao Jingshan retired and died, and it was reasonable that Li Bangyan should take over as prime minister. He was secretly excited for a few days, but it was Zhai Ruwen who replaced Gao Jingshan, which caused Li Bangyan to completely lie down and let it go.
"The annual military pay is more than 7 million guan, which is much less than the former Song Dynasty." Liu Yu's attitude was a little vague, but he was inclined not to quarrel with the prince.
Zhong Shidao said, "Not much."
Xiao Chu said, "After destroying the Jin Kingdom and Xixia, Shaanxi, Hebei, and Shanxi will not need so many garrisons. By then, military expenses should be able to be reduced."
Like Xiao Chu, Huang Shang was pulled into the cabinet by Zhu Guoxiang to balance the discussion of the Five Elements of Destiny last time.
Huang Shang seemed to be just there to make a cameo appearance: "I only know a little about military affairs, so I won't comment."
After Zhang Gen resigned and returned home, another person was appointed as a cabinet minister, and his promotion path was particularly strange. He entered the cabinet as the Left Governor of Hebei.
He is... Zong Ze!
In addition, Zhang Chunxiao, who led weak soldiers to defend Taiyuan for two and a half years as the prefect of Taiyuan and the Left Governor of Shaanxi, was also transferred back to the central government to serve as the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War.
Zong Ze said, "The Ministry of War's letter is practical and not made up at random. If the prime minister thinks that military expenses are too much, the soldiers' salaries must not be reduced. What is the right way to reduce the number of soldiers?"
Among the seven cabinet ministers, he was the only one who opposed the Ministry of War's plan?
Zhai Ruwen felt it was outrageous. He took out a set of actual data from the archives: "More than 7 million guan is not much, but this is just military pay. Take the reign of Emperor Yingzong of the previous dynasty as an example. The military pay for that year was about 9.94 million guan, but 7.42 million pieces of cloth, 23.17 million shi of military rations, and 24.98 million bundles of grass were also spent!"
"So much?" Li Bangyan was stunned.
Zhong Shidao explained: "During the reign of Emperor Yingzong of the previous dynasty, although there were no major battles, military camps and fortresses were built on the northwest border, and many of them were taken to the Song-Xia border to build cities. Building cities not only requires military protection, but also requires the recruitment of a large number of civilians and earth, stone and wood. How can this annual expenditure be reduced?"
After speaking, Zhong Shidao added: "Of course, there is definitely no need for 23.17 million shi of grain every year, and no one can explain how it was spent. Even during the Xuanhe period (Huizong's reign), there was no such outrageous amount after the war. There must be someone in the Yingzong's reign who embezzled and misappropriated it on a large scale."
Zhai Ruwen He also said: "Last year, we first destroyed Zhong Xiang, and then fought a war with the Jin Kingdom, and also made countless weapons and firearms. Although the military pay last year was only more than 4 million strings of cash, the total military expenditure reached 28 million strings of cash, and more than 4 million pieces of cloth, more than 12 million stones of grain, and more than 13 million bundles of grass were consumed!" Zong Ze reminded: "I don't know about other places, but a lot of the military rations in Hebei were used to resettle refugees after the war. When the Jin people evacuated, they burned, killed, and looted everywhere, and countless people needed help." "Nearly half of the military rations in Hunan were used to help the hungry people after the war." Zhong Shidao said. Seeing that the cabinet's direction was clear, Li Bangyan also said: "Last year, more than 28 million strings of cash were spent on building a large number of weapons, firearms, and warships. After these things are built, they don't cost much to maintain and repair every year. Just like when ordinary people build houses, they must spend a lot of money at the beginning. It is also valuable to put the houses there after they are repaired. It's not like throwing money into the water to listen to the sound. Especially for building warships, rectifying several shipyards in the old Song Dynasty, just restoring the shipyards has already cost a lot. These shipyards can build canal ships and merchant ships in the future." Zhai Ruwen looked at everyone and finally realized a serious problem. He is not Zhang Gen, he is not the prince's father-in-law. He did not surrender to the Ming Dynasty very early, and his qualifications and prestige are completely insufficient. The only thing he can show is the identity of the prince's seat teacher! Even Li Bangyan, a flatterer, can completely ignore him based on his merits, because Li Bangyan has the merit of connecting to seize Tokyo. As for the remaining few people, Liu Yu joined Zhu Guoxiang in Sichuan, and he was also the grandson-in-law of Zhang Dun. His qualifications and connections were there to crush Zhai Ruwen.
Zhong Shidao had a background in the Western Army, and the army supported him. The daughter of the Zhong family also married the prince as a concubine.
Zong Ze insisted on resisting the Jin in Hebei, and the soldiers of Hebei were his reliance.
And Xiao Chu was a big favorite in front of the emperor and the prince. He made an exception to take charge of the Hanlin Academy as a commoner, and then was added to the cabinet from the Hanlin Academy.
After calculating, Zhai Ruwen suddenly realized that as the prime minister of the cabinet, he could only suppress Huang Shang!
Li Bangyan also realized this situation at this time, and he was ecstatic for no reason. He was glad that he was not sidelined after taking over the prime minister position, and began to covet the position of prime minister. His cabinet ranking had long been second. So, can he win over other cabinet ministers, get Zhai Ruwen down, and then replace him?
"How about a vote?" Li Bangyan was eager to take the lead.
Cabinet voting was initiated by Zhu Guoxiang and is only carried out when the cabinet cannot make a decision.
It appears to be democratic and fair, but it actually contains huge hidden dangers. In another time and space, during the party strife in the late Ming Dynasty, the cabinet vote took the blame, and ministers formed cliques to squeeze out the chief ministers. As a result, the cabinet became a tool of party strife and could not function normally for a long time.
Zongze looked at Zhai Ruwen, then looked at Li Bangyan, and suddenly understood what was going on.
He didn't want to help Li Bangyan slander the Prime Minister, but he also agreed with the Ministry of War's proposal. He didn't know what to choose for a while.
Liu Yao also disliked Li Bangyan and reminded: "Prime Minister Li, you are just the deputy prime minister. The initiative to initiate a cabinet vote should be made by the prime minister. Please don't overstep your authority."
These words made Li Bangyan look extremely ugly. He subconsciously glanced at everyone and found that everyone looked disgusted.
The attitude of the cabinet ministers made Li Bangyan feel cold. It turned out that his popularity in the cabinet was so poor. Even if Zhai Ruwen is pulled off the horse, he, Li Bangyan, can't get up. Alas... he should just lie down and live his life from now on.
Li Bangyan started yawning again and seemed to be able to fall asleep even while sitting.
Whoever you love, I won’t serve you anymore!
Zhai Ruwen did not force a vote, but said softly: "Since everyone agrees, I will no longer insist. But are the 330,000 garrison troops and 180,000 cavalry troops too many? Zhejiang is rich, and If mountains and rivers are not prosperous, as long as there is no excessive levy, there will never be a giant bandit. And in Henan, there are heavy garrison troops in several surrounding provinces. How can there be a need for 20,000 garrison troops? "
In order to show that he was not deliberately going against the Prime Minister, Zhong Shidao nodded and said: "That's true. The garrison in Zhejiang should be reduced from 10,000 to 8,000. The garrison in Henan should be reduced from 20,000 to 10,000. And in Hubei, Even if the prince arranges for people to cultivate wasteland, the population will still be relatively small, and the garrison should be reduced from 10,000 to 8,000. "
Huang Shang also said: "In the previous dynasty, the post houses were managed by civilian officials, and the expenses of the post houses were paid by the state and county governments. The prince merged the post houses and delivery shops into the control of the Cajun Army, which allowed the local officials to It saves money, but the court has to increase expenditures every year. It is better for the Dipu to belong to the Cao Army and the post office to the local government.”
Liu Yao said: "The food and salary of the Cao army is indeed a bit high. They don't fight, they only provide courier and transportation, so why do they need to pay such a high military salary?"
While Li Bangyan was yawning, the cabinet ministers discussed and put forward cabinet opinions on the Ministry of War plan, and then submitted it to Zhu Guoxiang for approval.
When Zhu Guoxiang saw that it was a major military proposal, he immediately said: "Forward it to the Generalissimo's Office."
The proposal that Prince Zhu asked the Privy Council and the Ministry of War to submit came full circle and returned to Prince Zhu's hands...
After carefully reading the cabinet opinions, Ju Ming decided to give him some face, but he couldn't give it all.
He agreed to reduce the number of garrison troops in Henan, Zhejiang, and Hubei, but he did not agree to hand over the country's posthouses to local governments, nor did he agree to reduce the food and salary benefits of the Cao army.
In addition, some provinces have also re-districted this year.
Hanzhong was completely assigned to Shaanxi.
The entire Han River line starting from Jinzhou (Ankang) is assigned to the jurisdiction of Hubei.
Chizhou was separated from Zhejiang and placed under the jurisdiction of Jiangxi.
Officials in Chuzhou and Wenzhou made fierce quarrels, but the court ignored them, and these two places all belonged to Fujian.
After Ju Ming gave his instructions, he forwarded his opinions to the emperor.
Zhu Guoxiang took a casual look and expressed his agreement with Zhu Pi: "Report it to the cabinet."
Seven cabinet ministers gathered around to read.
The emperor's words "transferred to the Generalissimo's Mansion" made them silent for a while.
Although Zhu Guoxiang said he would not intervene in the military, he did so too obviously this time, and he seemed to indicate his attitude to the cabinet.
Zhai Ruwen felt a little frustrated, but still smiled and said: "If you can make His Highness the Crown Prince make changes and reduce the number of 14,000 garrison troops, our ministers will also be useful to the country."
Ju Ming made the military system more comprehensive and formal this time. One of the reasons was to place military generals.
Those generals who were injured and disabled in battle, but did not affect their daily operations. Those officers who were promoted purely based on their seniority but had poor combat performance in the past two years. There are also some older generals. As well as some southern rebel leaders... they were all separated and arranged to be stationed in the defense army and Cao army systems.
Then select some outstanding officers and generals and convert them to the field army system.
And by changing the military system, the former Imperial Forbidden Army, Xiang Army and the late Song Dynasty Rebel Army were completely digested.
For example, the Yao family army was divided into three this time and completely belonged to the imperial court——
The old, weak, sick and disabled will all be eliminated.
Ordinary sergeants, organized into the Shaanxi Garrison Army.
The elite troops were organized into the Ming Dynasty Field Army, with generals including Yao Pingzhong, Wu Jie, Wu Lin, Wang De and others. The two brothers Liu Qi were also incorporated into Yao Pingzhong's army.
The troops under the command of Hebei generals such as Yue Fei, Wang Yan, Li Cheng, Li Qiong, and Zhang Di were also expanded and reorganized. From now on, regardless of region or seniority, they will all be members of the Ming Dynasty Field Army.
Only through this military reform can Ju Ming truly control the national army.
Including the Zhejia Army and Liu Jiajun, they were all divided, reorganized, and annexed!